Castle Recap: Double Trouble -- Better Known as The Episode That Gave [Spoiler] the Hook

This week on ABC’s Castle, there was something about a murder, sure, but the bigger headlines were these:

* Beckett went public with her and Rick’s heretofore private-ish engagement.

* Alexis is on her way to give Pi the heave-ho.

The sum total of which is nice, because the Case of the Week was kinda meh, despite its Miley Lohan-esque underpinnings. And I will take some of the blame for that, having passed along an episodic photo that showed who the killer was. I almost cut that one from the batch, but I had to think that ABC — which will, for example, release three total photos from a Scandal episode, but never any of the character with the big storyline — would have caught that one. Lesson learned.

I also think Castle‘s version of Miley wasn’t nearly edgy or interesting enough, no fault of guest star Alexandra Chando. Maybe the embedded message was that these train wrecks really aren’t that compelling when the flash bulbs aren’t popping? I dunno.

But hey, Mandy’s greater purpose was as a sounding boarding for Alexis, who confided in her onetime idol that she has found herself sharing a leased apartment, and a life, with a guy she’s hoping will soon have cause to travel a lot. Lesson learned for her, too, in an unexpectedly Alexis-heavy hour. And yes, I’ll ask Andrew Marlowe (someday) if viewer “feedback” soured Pi’s fate. Maybe this means extra “Ski Cap” on Community?

Of course, the episode opened with the newspaper story that Rick had been spied out with ex-wife/publisher Gina — a salacious piece of gossip that Beckett was reminded of later by a paparazzo, and then by a teasing RySpo. But Kate had the last laugh when she surprised everyone by planting her and Rick’s previously under-wraps engagement news in the paper.

Explaining her (admittedly pat) reversal, she told Rick, “If they’re go to write about you, I want it to be the truth, I want it to be about us.” To which Rick smiled, “There’s no one I’d rather share a headline with it” — even if his bride-to-be is still grounding his dream of a space wedding.

What did you think of “Limelight”? Next up is the “fashionista” episode, which Frances Fisher told me will drop some fun knowledge about Beckett’s modelling days…..